THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
St. Cyprian of Carthage
Chapter 1
Since the Lord warns us in these words: 'Ye are the salt of the earth,'
and since He bids us to be simple unto harmlessness, and yet to be prudent
with our simplicity, what else, most beloved brethren, befits us than to
have foresight and watching with an anxious heart alike to perceive the snares
of the crafty enemy and to beware lest we, who have put on Christ the wisdom
of God the Father, seem to be less wise in guarding our salvation. For
persecution alone is not to be feared, nor the advances which are made in
open attack to overwhelm and cast down the servants of God. To be cautious
is easier when the object of fear is manifest, and the soul is prepared for
the contest beforehand, when the adversary declares himself. The enemy is
more to be feared and guarded against when he creeps up secretly, when deceiving
us under the appearance of peace he steals forward by hidden approaches,
from which too he receives the name of serpent (creeper, crawler, stealer).
This is always his cunning; this is his blind and dark deceit for circumventing
men. Thus from the very beginning of the world did he deceive and, flattering
with lying words, mislead the inexperienced soul with its reckless incredulity.
Thus trying to tempt the Lord himself, as if he would creep up again and
deceive, he approaches secretly. Yet he was understood and driven back and
so cast down, because he was discovered and unmasked.
Chapter 2
In this an example has been given us to flee the way of the old man;
to walk in the footsteps of the conquering Christ, that we may not heedlessly
be turned back again unto the snare of death, but that, on guard against
the danger, we may receive and possess immortality. But how can we possess
immortality, unless we keep those commandments of Christ by which death is
overcome and conquered, He Himself. warning us in these words: 'If thou wilt
enter into life, keep the commandments,' and again: 'If you do what I command
you, I no longer call you servant but friends.' These, finally, He calls
strong and steadfast, these grounded upon a rock of firm foundation, these
firmly established against all the tempests and storms of the world with
an unmoveable and unshaken firmness. 'He who hears my words,' He says, 'and
does them, I shall liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock.
The rain descended and the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that
house, but it did not fall, for it was founded upon a rock.' Therefore, we
ought to stand firm upon His words, and to learn and do whatever He taught
and did. But how does he say that he believes in Christ who does not do what
Christ ordered him to do? Or, whence shall he attain the reward of faith,
who does not keep the faith of the commandment? He will necessarily waver
and wander, and caught up by the breath of error will be blown as the dust
which the wind stirs up, nor will he make any advance in his walk toward
salvation, who does not hold to the truth of the saving way.
Chapter 3
But not only must we guard against things which are open and manifest
but also against those which deceive with the subtlety of clever fraud. Now
what is more clever, or what more subtle than that the enemy, detected and
cast down by the coming of Christ, after light had come to the Gentiles,
and the saving splendor had shone forth for the preservation of man, that
the deaf might receive the hearing of spiritual grace, the blind open their
eyes to the Lord, the weak grow strong with eternal health, the lame run
to the church, the dumb supplicate with clear voices and prayers,seeing the
idols abandoned and his shrines and temples deserted because of the great
populace of believers, devise a new fraud, under the very title of Christian
name to deceive the incautious? He invented heresies and schisms with which
to overthrow the faith, to corrupt the truth, to divide unity. Those whom
he cannot hold in the blindness of the old way, he circumvents and deceives
by the error of a new way. He snatches men from the Church itself, and, while
they seem to themselves to have already approached the light and to have
escaped the night of the world, he again pours forth other shadows upon the
unsuspecting, so that, although they do not stand with the Gospel of Christ
and with the observation of Him and with the law, they call themselves
Christians, and, although they walk in darkness, they think that they have
light, while the adversary cajoles and deceives, who, as the Apostle says,
transforms himself into an angel of light, and adorns his ministers as those
of justice who offer night for day, death for salvation, despair under the
offer of hope, perfidy under the pretext of faith, antichrist under the name
of Christ, so that while they tell plausible lies, they frustrate the truth
by their subtlety. This happens, most beloved brethren, because there is
no return to the source of truth, and the Head is not sought, and the doctrine
of the heavenly Master is not kept.
Chapter 4
If anyone considers and examines these things, there is no need of
a lengthy discussion and arguments. Proof for faith is easy in a brief statement
of the truth. The Lord speaks to Peter: 'I say to thee,' He says, 'thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it. And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and
whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.' Upon
him, being one, He builds His Church, and although after His resurrection
He bestows equal power upon all the Apostles, and says: 'As the Father has
sent me, I also send you. Receive ye the Holy Spirit: if you forgive the
sins of anyone, they will be forgiven him; if you retain the sins of anyone,
they will be retained,' yet that He might display unity, He established by
His authority the origin of the same unity as beginning from one. Surely
the rest of the Apostles also were that which Peter was, endowed with an
equal partnership of office and of power, but the beginning proceeds from
unity, that the Church of Christ may be shown to be one. This one Church,
also, the Holy Spirit in the Canticle of Canticles designates in the person
of the Lord and says: 'One is my dove, my perfect one is but one, she is
the only one of her mother, the chosen one of her that bore her.' Does he
who does not hold this unity think that he holds the faith? Does he who strives
against the Church and resists her think that he is in the Church, when too
the blessed Apostle Paul teaches this same thing and sets forth the sacrament
of unity saying: 'One body and one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God'?
Chapter 5
This unity we ought to hold firmly and defend, especially we bishops
who watch over the Church, that we may prove that also the episcopate itself
is one and undivided. Let no one deceive the brotherhood by lying; let no
one corrupt the faith by a perfidious prevarication of the truth. The episcopate
is one, the parts of which are held together by the individual bishops. The
Church is one which with increasing fecundity extend far and wide into the
multitude, just as the rays of the sun are many but the light is one, and
the branches of the tree are many but the strength is one founded in its
tenacious root, and, when many streams flow from one source, although a
multiplicity of waters seems to have been diffused from the abundance of
the overflowing supply nevertheless unity is preserved in their origin. Take
away a ray of light from the body of the sun, its unity does not take on
any division of its light; break a branch from a tree, the branch thus broken
will not be able to bud; cut off a stream from its source, the stream thus
cut off dries up. Thus too the Church bathed in the light of the Lord projects
its rays over the whole world, yet there is one light which is diffused
everywhere, and the unity of the body is not separated. She extends her branches
over the whole earth in fruitful abundance; she extends her richly flowing
streams far and wide; yet her head is one, and her source is one, and she
is the one mother copious in the results of her fruitfulness. By her womb
we are born; by her milk we are nourished; by her spirit we are animated.
Chapter 6
The spouse of Christ cannot be defiled; she is uncorrupted and chaste.
She knows one home, with chaste modesty she guards the sanctity of one couch.
She keeps us for God; she assigns the children whom she has created to the
kingdom. Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined with an adulteress
is separated from the promises of the Church, nor will he who has abandoned
the Church arrive at the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane;
he is an enemy. He cannot have God as a father who does not have the Church
as a mother. If whoever was outside the ark of Noe was able to escape, he
too who is outside. the Church escapes. The Lord warns, saying: 'He who is
not with me is against me, and who does not gather with me, scatters.' He
who breaks the peace and concord of Christ acts against Christ; he who gathers
somewhere outside the Church scatters the Church of Christ. The Lord says:
'I and the Father are one.' And again of the Father and Son and the Holy
Spirit it is written: 'And these three are one.' Does anyone believe that
this unity which comes from divine strength, which is closely connected with
the divine sacraments, can be broken asunder in the Church and be separated
by the divisions of colliding wills? He who does not hold this unity, does
not hold the law of God, does not hold the faith of the Father and the Son,
does not hold life and salvation.
Chapter 7
This sacrament of unity, this bond of concord inseparably connected
is shown, when in the Gospel the tunic of the Lord Jesus Christ is not at
all divided and is not torn, but by those who cast lots for the garment of
Christ, who rather might have put on Christ, a sound garment is received,
and an undamaged and undivided tunic is possessed. Divine Scripture speaks
and says: 'Now of the tunic, since it was woven throughout from the upper
part without seam, they said to one another: "Let us not tear it, but let
us cast lots for it, whose it shall be." ' He bore the unity that came down
from the upper part, that is, that came down from heaven and the Father,
which could not all be torn by him who received and possessed it, but he
obtained it whole once for all and a firmness inseparably solid. He cannot
possess the garment of Christ who tears and divides the Church of Christ.
Then on the other hand when at the death of Solomon his kingdom and people
were torn asunder, Ahias the prophet met King Jeroboam in the field and tore
his garment into twelve pieces, saying: 'Take to thee ten pieces, for thus
saith the Lord: "Behold I rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and
will give thee ten scepters, but two scepters shall remain to him for the
sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem the city which I have
chosen, that I may place my name there." When the twelve tribes of Israel
were torn asunder, the prophet Ahias rent his garment. But because the people
of Christ cannot be torn asunder, His tunic woven and united throughout was
not divided by those who possessed it. Undivided, joined, connected it shows
the coherent concord of us who have put on Christ. By the sacrament and sign
of His garment, He has declared the unity of the Church.
Chapter 8
Who then is so profane and lacking in faith, who so insane by the
fury of discord as either to believe that the unity of God, the garment of
the Lord, the Church of Christ, can be torn asunder or to dare to do so?
He Himself warns us in His Gospel, and teaches saying: 'And there shall be
one flock and one shepherd.' And does anyone think that there can be either
many shepherds or many flocks in one place? Likewise the Apostle Paul insinuating
this same unity upon us beseeches and urges us in these words: 'I beseech
you, brethren,' he says, 'by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you
all say the same thing, and that there be no dissensions among you: but that
you be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same judgment.' And again
he says: 'Bearing with one another in love, careful to preserve the unity
of the Spirit, in the bond of peace.' Do you think that you can stand and
live, withdrawing from the Church, and building for yourself other abodes
and different dwellings, when it was said to Rhaab, in whom the Church was
prefigured: 'You shall gather your father and your mother and your brethren
and the entire house of your father to your own self in your house, and it
will be that everyone who goes out of the door of your house shall be his
own accuser'; likewise, when the sacrament of the Passover contains nothing
else in the law of the Exodus than that the lamb which is slain in the figure
of Christ be eaten in one house? God speaks, saying: 'In one house it shall
be eaten, you shall not carry the flesh outside of the house.' The flesh
of Christ and the holy of the Lord cannot be carried outside, and there is
no other house for believers except the one Church. This house, this hospice
of unanimity the Holy Spirit designates and proclaims, when He says: 'God
who makes those of one mind to dwell in his house.' In the house of God,
in the Church of Christ, those of one mind dwell; they persevere in concord
and simplicity.
Chapter 9
So the Holy Spirit came in a dove. It is a simple and happy animal,
not bitter with gall, not cruel with its bites, not violent with lacerating
claws; it loves the hospitalities of men; when they give birth they bring
forth their offspring together; when they go and come they cling together;
they spend their lives in mutual intercourse; they recognize the concord
of peace by the kiss of the beak; they fulfill the law of unanimity in all
things. This is the simplicity which ought to be known in the Church; this
the charity to be attained, that the love of the brethren imitate the doves,
that their gentleness and tenderness equal that of the lambs and the sheep.
What is the savagery of wolves doing in the breast of a Christian, and the
madness of dogs and the lethal poison of snakes and the bloody cruelties
of beasts? Congratulations are due, when such as these are separated from
the Church, lest they prey upon the doves and sheep with their cruel and
venomous contagion. Bitterness cannot cling and join with sweetness, darkness
with light, rains with clear weather, fighting with peace, sterility with
fecundity, drought with running waters, storm with calm. Let no one think
that the good can depart from the Church; the wind does not ravage the wheat,
nor does the storm overturn the tree strongly and solidly rooted; the light
straws are tossed about by the tempest; the feeble trees are thrown down
by the onrush of the whirlwind. The Apostle Paul execrates and strikes at
these, when he says: 'They have gone forth from us, but they were not of
us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.'
Chapter 10
Hence heresies have both frequently arisen and are arising, while
the perverse mind has no peace, while discordant perfidy does not maintain
unity. Indeed the Lord permits and suffers these things to happen, while
the choice of one's own liberty remains, so that, while the norm of truth
examines our hearts and minds, the sound faith of those who are approved
may become manifest in a clear light. Through the Apostle the Holy Spirit
forewarns and says: 'For there must be fractions so that those who are approved
among you may be made manifest.' Thus the faithful are approved; thus the
perfidious are disclosed; thus also before the day of judgment, already here
too the souls of the just and the unjust are divided and the chaff is separated
from the wheat. From these are those who of their own accord set themselves
over daring strangers without divine appointment, who establish themselves
as prelates without any law of ordination, who assume the name of bishop
for themselves, although no one gives them the episcopacy; whom the Holy
Spirit in the psalms designates as sitting in the chair of pestilence, the
plague and disease of the faith, deceiving with a serpent's tongue and masters
in corrupting truth, vomiting lethal poisons from their pestilential tongues,
whose speech creeps about like cancer, whose discussions inject a deadly
virus within the breast and heart of everyone.
Chapter 11
Against such people the Lord cries out; from these He restrains and
recalls His wandering people saying: 'Hearken not to the words of false prophets,
since the visions of their hearts frustrate them. They speak, but not from
the mouth of the Lord. They say to them who reject the word of God: Peace
shall be to you and to all who walk in their own desires. To everyone who
walks in the errors of his own heart (they say): 'Evil shall not come upon
you.' I have not spoken to them, yet they have prophesied. If they had stood
in my counsel and had heard my words, and if they had taught my people, I
would have turned them from their evil thoughts.' These same people does
the Lord again designate and point out, when He says: 'They have abandoned
me to the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns
which cannot hold water.' Although there cannot be another baptism than the
one, they think that they baptize; although the fountain of life has been
deserted, they promise the grace of the life-giving and saving water. There
men are not washed but rather are made foul, nor are their sins purged but
on the contrary piled high. That nativity generates sons not for God but
for the devil. Being born through a lie they do not obtain the promises of
truth; begotten of perfidy they lose the grace of faith. They cannot arrive
at the reward of peace who have broken the peace of the Lord by the madness
of discord.
Chapter 12
Let not certain ones deceive themselves by an empty interpretation
of what the Lord has said: 'Whenever two or three have gathered together
in my name, I am with them.' Corrupters and false interpreters of the Gospel
quote the last words and pass over earlier ones, being mindful of part and
craftily suppressing part. As they themselves have been cut off from the
Church, so they cut off a sentence of one chapter. For when the Lord urged
unanimity and peace upon His disciples, He said: 'I say to you that if. two
of you agree upon earth concerning anything whatsoever that you shall ask,
it shall be granted you by my Father who is in heaven. For wherever two or
three have gathered together in my name, I am with them,' showing that the
most is granted not to the multitude but to the unanimity of those that pray.
'If two of you,' He says, 'agree upon earth'; He placed unanimity. first;
He set the concord of peace first; He taught that we should agree faithfully
and firmly. But how can he agree with anyone, who does not agree with the
body of the Church herself and with the universal brotherhood? How can two
or three be gathered in the name of Christ, who it is clear are separated
from Christ and His gospel? For we did not withdraw from them, but they from
us, and when thereafter heresies and schisms arose, while they were establishing
diverse meeting places for themselves, they abandoned the source and origin
of truth. The Lord, moreover, is speaking of His Church, and He is speaking
to those who are in the Church, that if they are in agreement, if, according
to what He has commanded and admonished, although two or three are gathered
together, they pray with unanimity, although they are two or three, they
can obtain from the majesty of God, what they demand. 'Wherever two or three
have gathered, I,' He said, 'am with them,' namely, with the simple and the
peaceful, with those who fear God and keep the commandments of God. He said
that He was with these although two or three, just as also He was with the
three children in the fiery furnace, and, because they remained simple toward
God and in unanimity among themselves, He animated them in the midst of flames
with the breath of dew; just as he was present with the two apostles shut
up in prison, because they were simple, because they were of one mind, He
opened the doors of the prison and returned them again to the market-place
that they might pass on the word to the multitude which they were faithfully
preaching. When then He lays it down in His commandments and says: 'Where
there are two or three, I am with them,' He who established and made the
Church did not separate men from the Church, but rebuking the faithless for
their discord and commanding peace to the faithful by His word, He shows
that He is with two or three who pray with one mind rather than with a great
many who are in disagreement, and that more can be obtained by the harmonious
prayer of a few than by the discordant supplication of many.
Chapter 13
So too when He gave the law of prayer, He added, saying: 'And when
you stand up to pray, forgive whatever you have against anyone, that your
Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your offenses.' And He calls
back from the altar one who comes to the sacrifice with dissension, and He
orders Him first to be reconciled with his brother and then return with peace
and offer his gift to God, because God did not look with favor upon the gifts
of Cain; for he could not have God at peace with him, who through envious
discord did not have peace with his brother. What peace then do the enemies
of the brethren promise themselves? What sacrifices do the imitators of priests
believe that they celebrate? Do they who are gathered together outside the
Church of Christ think that Christ is with them when they have been gathered
together?
Chapter 14
Even if such men are slain in confession of the Name that stain is
not washed away by blood; the inexpiable and inexpiable and serious fault
of discord is purged not even by martyrdom. He cannot be a martyr who is
not in the Church. He will not be able to arrive in the kingdom who deserted
her who is to rule. Christ gave us peace; He ordered us to be in agreement
and of one mind; He commanded us to keep the bonds of love and charity
uncorrupted and inviolate. He cannot display himself a martyr who has not
maintained fraternal charity. The Apostle Paul teaches and bears witness
to this when he says: 'If I have faith so that I remove mountains, but not
so that I have charity, I am nothing; and if I distribute all my goods for
food, and if I hand over my body so that I am burned, but not so that I have
charity, I accomplish nothing. Charity is noble, charity is kind, charity
envieth not, is not puffed up, is not provoked; does not act perversely,
thinks no evil, loves all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
bears all things. Charity never will fall away.' 'Never,' he says, 'will
charity fall away.' For she will always be in the kingdom and will endure
forever in the unity of the brotherhood clinging to it. Discord cannot come
to the kingdom of heaven; to the rewards of Christ who said: 'This is my
commandment that you love one another, even as I have loved you.' He will
not be able to attain it who has violated the love of Christ by perfidious
dissension. He who does not have charity does not have God. The words of
the blessed Apostle John are: 'God,' he says, 'is love, and he who abides
in love, abides in God and God abides in him.' They cannot abide with God
who have been unwilling to be of one mind in God's Church. Although they
burn when given over to flames and fire, or lay down their lives when thrown
to the beasts, that crown of faith will not be theirs, but the punishment
of perfidy, and no glorious ending of religious valor but the destruction
of desperation. Such a man can be slain; he cannot be crowned. Thus he professes
himself to be a Christian, just as the devil often falsely declares himself
to be even Christ, although the Lord forewarned of this saying: 'Many will
come in my name saying: "I am the Christ," and will deceive many.' Just as
He is not Christ, although he deceives in His name, so he cannot seem a Christian
who does not abide in His Gospel and in the true faith.
Chapter 15
For both to prophesy and to drive out demons, and to perform great
miracles on earth is certainly a sublime and admirable thing, yet whoever
is found in all this does not attain the kingdom of heaven unless he walk
in the observance of the right and just way. The Lord gives warning and says:
'Many will say to me in that day: "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
Thy name and cast out devils in thy name and worked great miracles in thy
name?" And then I will say to them: "I never knew you. Depart from me ye
workers of iniquity." 'There is need of righteousness that one may deserve
well of God as judge; His precepts and admonitions must be obeyed that our
merits may receive their reward. The Lord in the Gospel, when he was directing
the way of our hope and faith, in a brief summary said: 'The Lord thy God
is one Lord,' and 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart,
and with thy whole soul and with thy whole strength. This is the first, and
the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these
two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.' He taught at the
same time unity and love by the authority of His teaching; He included all
the prophets and the law in two commandments. But what unity does he preserve,
what love does he guard or consider, who mad with the fury of discord splits
the Church, destroys the faith, disturbs the peace, dissipates charity, profanes
the sacrament?
Chapter 16
This evil, most faithful brethren, began long ago, but now the dangerous
destruction of the same evil has increased, and the venomous plague of heretical
perversity and schisms has begun to rise and to spread more, because even
so it was to be at the decline of the world, for the Holy Spirit proclaimed
it to us and forewarned us through the Apostle: 'In the last days,' he says,
'dangerous times will come, men will be lovers of self, haughty, proud, covetous,
blasphemous, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, impious, without affection,
without law, slanderers, incontinent, merciless, not loving the good,
treacherous, stubborn, puffed up with pride, loving pleasure more than God,
having a semblance of piety, but denying its power. Of such are they who
make their way into houses and captivate silly women who are sin-laden and
led away by various lusts; ever learning, yet never attaining knowledge of
the truth. Just as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these resist the
truth. But they will make no further progress, for their folly will be obvious
to all, as was that of those others.' Whatever things were foretold are being
fulfilled and, as the end of the world now approaches, have come with the
testing of men and the times alike. More and more, as the adversary raves,
error deceives, stupidity raises its head, envy inflames, covetousness blinds,
impiety depraves, pride puffs up, discord exasperates, anger rushesheadlong.
Chapter 17
Yet let not the extreme and precipitous perfidy of many move or disturb
us, but rather let it strengthen our faith by the truth of things foretold.
As certain ones begin to be such, because these things were predicted beforehand,
thus let other brethren beware of matters of a similar sort, because these
also were predicted, as the Lord instructed us saying: 'Be on your guard
therefore; behold I have told you all things beforehand.' I beseech you,
avoid men of this sort, and ward off from your side and from your hearing
their pernicious conversation as the contagion of death, as it is written:
'Hedge in thy ears with thorns, and hear not a wicked tongue.' And again:
'Evil communications corrupt good manners.' The Lord teaches and admonishes
that we must withdraw from such. 'They are blind guides,' He says, 'of the
blind. But if a blind man guide a blind man, both shall fall into a pit.'
Such a one is to be turned away from, and whoever has separated himself from
the Church is to be shunned. Such a man is perverted and sins and is condemned
by his very self. Does he seem to himself to be with Christ, who acts contrary
to the priests of Christ, who separates himself from association with His
clergy and His people? That man bears arms against the Church; he fights
against God's plan. An enemy of the altar, a rebel against the sacrifice
of Christ, for the faith faithless, for religion sacrilegious, a disobedient
servant, an impious son, a hostile brother, despising the bishops and abandoning
the priests of God, he dares to set up another altar, to compose another
prayer with unauthorized words, to profane the truth of the Lord's offering
by false sacrifices, and not to know that he who struggles against God's
plan on account of his rash daring is punished by divine censure.
Chapter 18
Thus Core, Dathan, and Abiron, who tried to assume for themselves
in opposition to Moses and Aaron the freedom to sacrifice, immediately paid
the penalty for their efforts. The earth, breaking its bonds, opened up into
a deep chasm, and the opening of the receding ground swallowed up the standing
and the living, and not only did the anger of the indignant God strike those
who had been the authors (of the revolt), but fire that went out from the
Lord in speedy revenge also consumed two hundred and fifty others, participants
and sharers in the same madness, who had been joined together with them in
the daring, clearly warning and showing that whatever the wicked attempt
by human will to destroy God's plan is done against God. Thus Ozias the king
also, when, carrying the censer and violently assuming to himself the right
to sacrifice contrary to the law of God, although Azarias, the priest, resisted
him, he was unwilling to give way and obey, was confounded by the divine
indignation and was polluted on his forehead by the spot of leprosy, being
marked for his offense against the Lord where they are signed who merited
well of the Lord. And the sons of Aaron, who place a strange fire on the
altar, which the Lord had not ordered, were immediately extinguished in the
sight of the avenging Lord.
Chapter 19
These, certainly, they imitate and follow, who despise God's tradition
and seek after strange doctrines and introduce teachings of human disposition.
These the Lord rebukes and reproves in His Gospel when He says: 'You reject
the commandment of God that you may establish your own tradition.' This crime
is worse than that which the lapsed seem to have committed, who while established
in penance for their crime beseech God with full satisfactions. Here the
Church is sought and entreated, there the Church is resisted; here there
can have been necessity, there the will is held in wickedness; here he who
lapsed harmed only himself, there he who tried to cause a heresy or schism
deceived many by dragging them with him; here there is the loss of one soul,
there danger to a great many. Certainly this one knows that he has sinned
and bewails and laments; that one swelling in his sin and taking pleasure
in his very crimes separates children from their Mother, entices sheep from
their shepherd, and disturbs the sacraments of God. And whereas the lapsed
has sinned once, the former sins daily. Finally, the lapsed later, after
achieving martyrdom, can receive the promises of the kingdom; the former,
if he is killed outside the Church, cannot arrive at the rewards of the Church.
Chapter 20
Let no one marvel, most beloved brethren, that even certain of the
confessors proceed to these lengths, that some also sin so wickedly and so
grievously. For neither does confession (of Christ) make one immune from
the snares of the devil, nor does it defend him who is still placed in the
world, with a perpetual security against worldly temptations and dangers
and onsets and attacks; otherwise never might we have seen afterwards among
the confessors the deceptions and debaucheries and adulteries which now with
groaning and sorrow we see among some. Whoever that confessor is, he is not
greater or better or dearer to God than Solomon, who, however, as long as
he walked in the ways of the Lord, so long retained the grace which he had
received from the Lord; after he had abandoned the way of the Lord, he lost
also the grace of the Lord. And so it is written: 'Hold what you have, lest
another receive thy crown.' Surely the Lord would not make this threat, that
the crown of righteousness can be taken away, unless, when righteousness
departs, the crown also must depart.
Chapter 21
Confession is the beginning of glory, not already the merit of the
crown; nor does it achieve praise, but it initiates dignity, and, since it
is written; 'He that shall persevere to end, he shall be saved,' whatever
has taken place before the end is a step by which the ascent is made to the
summit of salvation, not the end by which the topmost point is held secure.
He is a confessor, but after the confession the danger is greater, because
the adversary is the more provoked. He IS a confessor; for this reason he
ought to stand with the Gospel of the Lord, for by the Gospel he has obtained
glory from the Lord. 'To whom much is given, of him much is required'; and
to whom the more dignity is allotted, from him the more service is demanded.
Let no one perish through the example of a confessor, let no one learn injustice,
no one insolence, no one perfidy from the habits of a confessor. He is a
confessor; let him be humble and quiet, in his actions let him be modest
with discipline, so that he who is called a confessor of Christ may imitate
the Christ whom he confesses. For since he says: 'Everyone that exalts himself
shall be humbled, and everyone that humbles himself shall be exalted,' and
since he himself has been exalted by the Father, because He, the Word and
the Power and the Wisdom of God the Father humbled Himself on earth, how
can He love pride who even by His law enjoined humility upon us and Himself
received from the Father the highest name as the reward of humility? He is
a confessor of Christ, but only if afterwards the majesty and dignity of
Christ be not blasphemed by him. Let not the tongue which has confessed Christ
be abusive nor boisterous; let it not be heard resounding with insults and
contentions; let it not after words of praise shoot forth a serpent's poisons
against the brethren and priests of God. But if he later become blameworthy
and abominable, if he dissipates his confession by evil conversation, if
he pollutes his life with unseemly foulness, if, finally, abandoning the
Church where he became a confessor and breaking the concord of its unity,
he change his first faith for a later faithlessness, he cannot flatter himself
by reason of his confession as if elected to the reward of glory, when by
this very fact the merits of punishment have grown the more.
Chapter 22
For the Lord chose even Judas among the Apostles, and yet later Judas
betrayed the Lord. Nevertheless, the firmness and faith of the Apostles did
not on this account fall, because the traitor Judas defected from their
fellowship. So also in this case the sanctity and dignity of the confessors
was not immediately diminished, because the faith of some of them was broken.
The blessed Apostle speaks in his letter saying: 'For what if some of them
have fallen away from the faith? Has their infidelity made of no effect the
faith of God? God forbid. For God is true, but every man a liar.' The greater
and better part of the confessors stand firm in the strength of their faith
and in the truth of the Lord's law and teaching, neither do they depart from
the peace of the Church, who remember that they have obtained grace in the
Church from God's esteem, and by this very fact do they obtain greater praise
for their faith, that they separated themselves from the perfidy of those
who had been joined with them in the fellowship of confession, and withdrew
from the contagion of their crime. Moreover, illumined by the light of the
Gospel, shining with the pure white light of the Lord, they are as praiseworthy
in preserving the peace of Christ as they were victorious in their encounter
with the devil.
Chapter 23
Indeed, I desire, most beloved brethren, and I likewise advise and
entreat, that, if it can be done, no one of the brethren perish, and that
our rejoicing Mother enclose in her bosom one body of people in agreement.
If, however, saving counsel cannot recall certain leaders of schisms and
authors of dissensions who persist in their blind and obstinate madness to
the way of salvation, yet the rest of you either taken by your simplicity,
or induced by error, or deceived by some craftiness of misleading cunning,
free yourselves from the snare of deceit, liberate your wandering steps from
errors, recognize the right way of the heavenly road. The words of the Apostle
giving testimony are: 'We charge you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
that you withdraw from all brethren who walk disorderly and not according
to the tradition which they received from us.' And again he says: 'Let no
one deceive you with vain words; for because of these things comes the wrath
of God upon the children of disobedience. Be ye not, therefore, partakers
with them.' We must withdraw, rather flee from those who fall away, lest,
while one is joined with them as they walk wickedly, and passes over the
paths of error and crime, wandering apart from the way of the true road,
he himself also be caught in a like crime. God is one and Christ one and
His Church one and the faith one and the people one joined together by the
tie of concord into a solid unity of body. The unity cannot be torn asunder,
nor can the one body be separated by a division of its structure, nor torn
into bits by the wrenching asunder of its entrails by laceration. Whatever
departs from the parent-stem will not be able to breathe and live apart;
it loses the substance of health.
Chapter 24
The Holy Spirit warns us, saying: 'Who is the man that desireth life;
who loveth to see the best days? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips
from speaking guile. Turn away from evil and do good; seek after peace, and
pursue it.' The son of peace ought to seek and follow peace; he who knows
and loves the bond of charity ought to restrain his tongue from the evil
of dissension. Among his divine commands and salutary instructions the
Lord now very near His passion added the following: 'Peace I leave you, my
peace I give you.' This inheritance He gave us, all the gifts and rewards
of His promise He assured us in the conservation of peace. If we are heirs
of Christ, let us remain in the peace of Christ; if we are sons of God, we
ought to be peace-makers. 'Blessed,' He said, 'are the peace-makers, for
they shall be called the sons of God.' The sons of God should be peace-makers,
gentle in heart, simple in speech, harmonious in affection, clinging to one
another faithfully in the bonds of unanimity.
Chapter 25
This unanimity existed of old among the Apostles; thus the new assembly
of believers, guarding the commandments of the Lord, maintained their charity.
Scripture proves this in the following words: 'But the multitude of those
who believed acted with one soul and one mind.' And again, 'And all were
persevering with one mind in prayer with the women and Mary the mother of
Jesus and His brethren.' Thus they prayed with efficacious prayers; thus
they were able with confidence to obtain whatever they asked of God's mercy.
Chapter 26
But with us unanimity has been so diminished that even the liberality
of our good works has been lessened. Then they sold their homes and estates,
and, laying up treasures for themselves in heaven, they offered to the Apostles
the proceeds to be distributed for use among the poor. But now we do not
even give a tenth of our patrimony, and, although the Lord orders us to sell,
we rather buy and increase. So has the vigor of faith withered in us; so
has the strength of believers languished. And therefore the Lord, looking
upon our times, says in His Gospel: 'When the Son of man comes, do you think
that He will find faith on the earth?' We see that what he foretold is coming
to pass. There is no faith in the fear of God, in the law of justice, in
love, in works. No one considers fear of the future; no one thinks of the
day of the Lord and the anger of God and the punishments to come upon unbelievers
and the eternal torments decreed for the faithless. Whatever our conscience
would fear, if it believed, because it does not believe, it does not fear
at all. But if it did believe, it would also be on guard; if it were on guard,
it would also escape.
Chapter 27
Let us rouse ourselves in so far as we can, most beloved brethren,
and, breaking the sleep of old inertia let us awake to the observing and
keeping of the Lord's precepts. Let us be such as He Himself ordered us to
be when He said: 'Let your loins be girt, and your lamps brightly burning,
and you yourself like to men waiting for their Lord, when He shall come from
the wedding, that when He comes and knocks, they may open to Him. Blessed
are those servants whom the Lord, when He comes, shall find watching.' We
ought to be girt, lest, when the day of departure come, it finds us burdened
and entangled. Let our light shine forth in good works and glow, so that
it may lead us from the night of this world to the light of eternal brightness.
Let us always with solicitude and caution await the sudden coming of the
Lord, so that, when He knocks, our faith may be vigilant, ready to receive
from the Lord the reward of its vigilance. If these mandates are kept, if
these warnings and precepts are maintained, we cannot be overtaken while
sleeping by the deceit of the devil; we will reign as vigilant servants with
Christ as our Lord.
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